Contact Made After-hours: Alteration or cancellation after business hours or holiday will be handled at the next business day. (In the case of receiving the cancellation after office hours via non-face-to-face communication methods, not via internet. (e.g. e-Mail, FAX and so on.)

Participants are free to make their own travel and hotel arrangements, but using JTB Western Japan is highly recommended and encouraged.

Airport Information

The closest two airports to Otsu (the conference venue) are in the Osaka area, which is just over an hour by bus or train to Kyoto, then 10 mins by local train to Otsu.

The easiest airport option is to fly directly to Kansai International Airport (KIX), then take the train to Kyoto.

However many airlines fly instead to Osaka's international airport at Itami (ITM) either directly, or more commonly via a connection in Tokyo. This is also fine, and there is comfortable bus service from the Itami Airport to Kyoto train station.

A third possibility is to fly to Tokyo, then catch a fast train (shinkansen) to Kyoto. It will probably take a couple of hours to make all the connections, buy tickets etc in Tokyo, then just over 2 hours by train from Tokyo Station to Kyoto station.

How to get to the conference venue:
Otsu at Lake Biwa

From Kansai International Airport (KIX)
Kansai International Airport is situated 50 km from the center of Osaka and is the nearest international airport to Kyoto, Otsu and Lake Biwa. There is an easy rail connection from Kansai International Airport to Kyoto, and then to Otsu. More information is available at http://www.kansai-airport.or.jp/en/access/index.html.

Note that there are also excellent bus connections from
Osaka’s second airport, Itami Airport (also known as
Osaka International Airport), to the Kyoto train station. Travel time from Itami airport to Otsu is approximately 60 to 90 minutes.

By Train
The Otsu JR Station is 10 minutes from Kyoto Station, which is 1 hour 15 minutes from Kansai airport, 50 minutes from Nagoya or 2 hours 15 minutes from Tokyo. The conference venue is a 15-minute walk from Otsu Station, a 10-minute walk from Zeze Station on the JR Biwako Line, or a 3-minute walk from Ishiba Station on the Keihan Railway line.

By Car
5-minute drive from Otsu Interchange on the Meishin Expressway (accessible from Osaka Umeda in 40 minutes)